Kosrae - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities.
Aboriginally, subsistence was based on breadfruit, coconuts, bananas,
taro, yams, and sugarcane. Breadfruit was the staple when in season. It
was preserved in leaf-lined pits for times of scarcity. Each settlement
included at least one earth oven, used for cooking. Soft taro was made
into a feast food called
fahfah
by men trained in the elaborate skills needed to prepare it properly.
Coconuts were reserved for the noble class. Another important crop was
kava, a drink made from the roots of a plant that grew in the mountains.
It was prepared for and served
to
members of the nobility by specialists. Fish were harvested mainly from
the lagoon using nets. A medium of exchange made of shells existed, but
little is known of its specific uses. In modern times, daily food for
most families is a mixture of imported rice, tinned meats and fish, and
locally produced fish and tree and root crops. Fahfah and pork are
mainly feast foods.

Industrial Arts.
Like other Micronesians, Kosraens in precontact times were especially
skilled in the construction of canoes. In prehistoric times, at least,
they also possessed the knowledge needed to mine and transport the
basalt used to build the impressive stone walls enclosing chiefly
compounds on Lelu Island. Skills needed to work with modern tools
developed during the Japanese mandate, and today many Islanders are
electricians, carpenters, and heavy-equipment operators.

Trade.
Old Kosrae was visited by neighboring atoll dwellers for purposes of
trade, although evidence suggests that Kosraens themselves rarely
ventured far beyond the shores of their lush homeland. German traders
had firmly established the exchange of copra for imported Western
articles by 1890. The sale of copra remained the major source of cash
income into the 1960s. During World War II, Kosraen fields provided food
crops taken to the Japanese garrison stationed in the Marshalls. Today
about one in four Kosraens of appropriate age has a job, trading labor
for cash used almost entirely to purchase goods imported from Japan,
Australia, and the United States. Privately owned stores have sprung up
to supply the new demand.

Division of Labor.
Even in aboriginal times, there were crafts specialists, including
cooks, fahfah makers, kava makers and servers, nannies, canoe builders,
and fishers. Most or all of these specialists were attached to and
provided their services for chiefs. Gender also determined the
allocation of tasks: women were weavers of mats, nets, baskets, belts,
and clothing, while men were cultivators, builders, cooks, and makers of
earth ovens. Both sexes fished. The titled nobility did little or no
farming, construction, or other forms of manual labor.

Land Tenure.
Before the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the principal
chief controlled the allocation of all the land on the island. He
allocated control over particular districts, with their natural
resources and commoner residents, to other members of the noble class.
Commoners, and in theory other members of the nobility, used the land
only by his leave. In return, commoners were obliged to supply regular
tribute and labor services to the chief to whom their district was
assigned. Today ownership is in the hands of individuals, although a
group of siblings will occasionally maintain Control over plots.